Google Street View extended to cover most of UK

Google is promising "360 degree street-level imagery of places as far north as Shetland and as far south as Penzance; from Pembrokeshire in the west of Wales to Ipswich in the east of England or over the sea to Northern Ireland and many places in between."

Approximately 210,000 additional miles have been added to Street View with the update, bringing the total now available to around 238,000 miles.

A Google spokesperson told Wired: "We may have missed the odd few streets around the UK but hope to add those at some point." (They missed the street I grew up on in Rotherham -Ed.)

When Google Street View launched in the UK in March 2009, it covered 25 cities but since then Google has sent out its drivers to cover 88 percent more roads. But it's not been without its problems. "Our drivers told us the biggest challenge to driving the UK was the British weather," Google said. "The optimum weather conditions for capturing Street View imagery are dry and slightly overcast skies -- rain, snow, fog and hail are the worst."

As well as Google cars, the company has also sent out the Google Trike (see image above), to get to off-road locations. Six destinations were voted for by 30,000 British people and these were Stonehenge, The Millennium Stadium, Angel of the North, Loch Ness, Eden Project and Warwick Castle.

In December, World Heritage sites in this country were added and a month later, 19 National Trust properties became accessible on Google Maps.